2 Chronicles 30:9, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to Hezekiah's invitation to the northern tribes to turn from idolatry and join in the Passover, renewing the feast as a call for Israel and Judah to seek the Lord together. That invitation was carried by couriers going from city to city through Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun, calling Israel to repent and turn to God. It was part of the first Passover celebrated under Hezekiah, in whose reign the public reading of the law and the observance of the statutes of Moses helped make the kingdom prosperous. Judah responded widely to the invitation, for God gave the people one heart to obey a command in keeping with His will revealed through the prophets.

In the once-flourishing northern kingdom the remnant of the ten tribes should have recognized the message as an appeal to repent. Most treated the messengers with indifference and contempt, laughing them to scorn and mocking them. Yet some of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread. The verse promises that if the people turn again to the Lord, their brethren and children held captive will find compassion before those who lead them captive, so that they may come again into the land.

The reason given for this hope is that the Lord God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away His face from or reject those who return to Him. In its setting the promise offered hope both to the remnant of Israel still in the land and to families already taken captive by Assyria. It applies to God's people in the present as an appeal for people of every age to give themselves wholly to the Lord.